His cousin's voice is a stony rasp, a death rattle. Concern blights the mammoth man's features; he's quite sure the unicorn didn't used to talk like that. Whatever cruel fate has befallen Öde, it sends cold shivers down Volterra's spine. There's always been something haunting about his brother-friend, something sinister, some hint of darkness that even the Indomitable - bloodthirsty as he can sometimes be - is unnerved by. He does not know of Öde's immortality, although he has suspected something similar ever since the God fight when he's pretty damn sure he saw the unicorn getting impaled, only to converse with him a few weeks later. That, coupled with the fact he cannot seem to summon his magic when in his cousin's presence, makes him wonder what ungodly power the other male possesses.

I was trapped. He waits for the smaller stallion to elaborate, and the shivers only intensify when Öde does just that. Left to rot. Since last Frostfall. Volterra adopts a troubled expression, struggling to suppress the shudders at the very image. Upon his broad back, Vérzés' reaction is just as worried; to the dragon, it is the very picture of Hell. To be trapped beneath the ground unable to breathe, unable to eat, unable to fly, simply ensconced in eternal blackness, writhing in your own agony...it is a heinous fate that neither Volterra nor his crimson dragon can possibly contemplate the repercussions of. "You have been buried alive....for a year?" The disbelief in his voice is clear - how the hell did Öde survive such a fate?

He looks to Myrrine, who is in the process of introducing herself. "Myrrine here is a healer. Would you like her to check you over? Then, we should find some grazing and water for you, brother." It does not cross his mind that the mare might refuse any request he makes to heal his cousin - he expects her unquestioning deference, given his superior position within their herd. The behemoth glances at her all the same, wondering if she'll have any reaction to his words, then looks back to Öde as the unicorn asks if anything has happened in his absence.

Where to start? So much has happened in the last year - from a personal point of view, it's been Volterra's most changed year, as he began it as an Outcast and finished it as a fully paid up member of a herd. In the larger scheme of things, there's Kisamoa to worry about, and the leviathan certainly does just that. "I joined the Dragon's Throat as its Gladiator. They call me the Indomitable now, too." A hint of a smirk taints his muzzle as he thinks of his title, how much he adores it. "More importantly, there have been a recent string of appearances from a creature that calls itself Kisamoa. It - or he - seems to have a large number of Helovians under his thrall. He asks them to do something and they obey him unquestioningly, even to the extent of submerging themselves in the ocean simply because he promised they would be able to breathe." Volterra's troubled expression has reappeared; cocked ears, furrowed brow, mouth downturned in a frown. "I do not trust him, brother, and whatever he has planned for us I fear it has only just begun."